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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
 
Program Assessment

Program

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Adoption Incentives

The program's purpose is to encourage states to find permanent homes for children in the foster system care through adoptions. Incentive payments are given to States that increase the number of adoptions of children in the public foster care system, children with special needs under age 9, and older children (9 and older).

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Adequate

This rating describes a program that needs to set more ambitious goals, achieve better results, improve accountability or strengthen its management practices.
  • The program is generally well administered in providing financial incentives to states to increase the number of adoptions. States used the incentives appropriately to fund activities related to recruiting potential adoptive parents, providing staff training on adoption related issues, and providing post-adoption services.
  • The program lacks ambitious targets for its goal of increasing adoptions. The current targets simply maintain the status quo.
  • The program's efficiency measure was found not to tie to the goals of increasing adoptions and decreasing the adoption gap in older children.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Identifying and addressing the barriers to increasing the proportion of children adopted from the foster care system.
  • Exploring programmatic or policy changes in order to set more ambitious adoption targets.
  • Using newly developed efficiency measure to monitor and improve program efficiency and effectiveness.

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